Pregnant shrimp/cleaning the tank questions

[aquasteph]

Currently I have a pregnant ghost shrimp. Last time I had a pregnant shrimp I removed her from the rest of the tank and put her in a floating breeder and she ended up eating her babies because she obviously wasn't happy.

This time, I'm trying a different approach and leaving her in the tank with the rest of the shrimp/my fish. Now, as many of you may know from observing shrimp, they kind of make nests in small crevasses and under rocks. I'm thinking, this might be to eventually hatch their eggs in.

Obviously I know that I need to keep my tank clean in order to have no pollution, but I'm hesitating on my water change/siphoning. Should I leave their little nests of dirtyness or clean them out? I want her to have a comfortable place to lay her eggs if that's what she's aiming for.

What do you guys think?

[Z Fish Man]

From what I remember ghost shrimp eggs need brackish to hatch in and grow. They will no develop if you leave them in fresh water. They also eat their own eggs so you need to separate the shrimp from their eggs.

[troy]

From what I remember ghost shrimp eggs need brackish to hatch in and grow. They will no develop if you leave them in fresh water. They also eat their own eggs so you need to separate the shrimp from their eggs.
That is all wrong info. Ghost shrimp don't need brackish water for the eggs to hatch and they don't eat their own eggs.

[aquasteph]

ok well either way my tank IS brackish.

last time i had a pregnant shrimp i put her in a breeder and she was so unhappy she ate her eggs. so this time i have two pregger shrimps and i'm leaving them free in the tank, and so far so good.

still doesn't answer my question about cleaning out their little dirty niches.

help!?

[thezookeeper]

Are you sure about that troy? I have yet to find anything that says ghost shrimp can hatch in freshwater. As far as cleaning on the tank, I guess I would leave it alone until after shrimp have hatched and see what happens. They will need to hide somewhere till they get out of the larval stage. Add some stress zyme or other liquid bacteria to help break down the organics while you wait

[jaysee]

Everything I've read says they need brackish water, so that's not a problem. Make sure the larva can't get sucked up in the filter and have propper food for them

[Heliwyr]

Are you sure about that troy? I have yet to find anything that says ghost shrimp can hatch in freshwater. As far as cleaning on the tank, I guess I would leave it alone until after shrimp have hatched and see what happens. They will need to hide somewhere till they get out of the larval stage. Add some stress zyme or other liquid bacteria to help break down the organics while you wait

My ghost shrimp just hatched some babies. And I just looked over and saw a couple that made it past the larval stage and have grown legs. (Okay, acutally, I didn't even know it was time for the babies to hatch, but I did noticed the prego female no longer had eggs a few days ago. I guess this is what happening to them!) My tank is not brackish. So, clearly, the baby shrimp are developing in spite of the water being completely freshwater.

What I've done, is just cleaned my tank when the female shrimps have eggs. Mine have never been stressed out to the point of eating their eggs by my crazy rearranging of the aquascape. They know well enough that The Hand is not interested in eating them, though they still keep their distance. Of course, now that there are babies, I will have to hold off on any intense cleaning and just do water changes.

As for the nesting thing, I never noticed that. Good info. I'll have to research this behaviour some more. I've probably never noticed because I have plants all over the place and it's really hard to see into those crevices with stems and roots shooting up all over the place.

[Eileen]

Let me answer your cleaning question. I just leave mine alone. I take about 25% of the water out of the tank and replace that with treated water that is room temp. The floor of your tank can not be that messy unless you overfeed them. I just sometimes use a net or a turkey baster to get the extra food out of the bottom that goes uneaten. That is if the shrimp don't pick it up after a day.

[aquasteph]

Thank you finally for some answers. :) I read that I needed to take the babies away from the shrimp, so I extracted the eggs from the Moms without hurting them. I put them in a separate tiny tank inside my crab tank (since the water is warmer.) I don't know if the mother is giving any nutrients to the eggs via some form of connection, but since it would be basically impossible to catch the lil suckers before all my other fish eat them, I thought i would try removing them as eggs. I'll let you guys know what happens!

Thanks for all the advice guys!